Decanting a starter

Hi there,

I'm now done with brewing my SNPA clone and a Maerzen. These were the first 2 brews where I reused yeast that I had keept from previous batches.

When I make starters, I keep aerating them as good as I can (oxygen, frequent swirling, since I don't have a stir plate yet). This results in a starter liquid that I don't want to get into my wort. At the Maltose Falcon's I found this interesting article about decanting a starter: http://www.maltosefalcons.com/tech/yeast_settling/

I used this method with both my starters. As expected it worked very well with the ale yeast. When a fridge temps, the yeast just stops metabolizing and sinks to the bottom. I got nice 1/4in yeast sediment at the bottom with almost clear liquid on top, which I decanted before suspending the yeast with some wort.

Well, it didn't work so well for the lager yeast. Even in the fridge at 40F, not many of them settled. And putting the growler into an ice bath didn't really help it either. Luckily I got some sediment that I was able to pitch.

I like the idea of settling out the yeast at high krausen since this will minimize the osmotic shock when pitched and the yeast is at its freshest. But for lager yeast I will have to make lower gravity starters and have the yeast ferment it out. Short of a centrifuge, this seems to be the only option.

What are you guys doing?

I just made my first yeast starter tonight (I've been very slow to add some easy, better techniques into my repertoire), so I'll try that link. Thanks for the info! How much can you initially aerate it before it really starts to oxidize? (I've swirled mine in the erlenmeyer flask about 3 short times in the hour that it's been in it.) I have a feeling that when I'm able to brew (Thursday morning), it won't pay to try and chill it (i've got a feeling it will still be active) and it won't do much in the way of settling anyway with the time I have. Thoughts? Thanks for your help.

i use extra light dme for my starters and pitch the whole thing at high kraeusen. i haven't noticed any problems with the color or gravity. now, for a lager, you'll need a good sized starter. i used about 1800 ml for a lager starter. still pitched the whole thing. i made the starter at room temp and pitched into the wort at 70 degrees. once i saw activity, i moved the primary to my chest freezer and i started lowering the temp gradually to get to my ferm temp of 55 degrees. you could do a 4 qt yeast starter, chill, decant the liquide, and then use some cooled wort or distilled water to add to the starter, swirl, then pitch.
i don't aerate my starters. i just swirl the flask real good prior to adding yeast, and off and on until i pitch it into my cooled 5.5 g wort. i've always had good results.